A request is made to fund additional and back-up instrumentation on the R/V Roger Revelle, a 273? general purpose Global vessel; the R/V Melville, a 279?general purpose Global vessel; the R/V New Horizon, a 170?, general purpose, Ocean/Intermediate vessel and the R/V Sproul, a 125? general purpose Coastal/Local vessel. All four vessels are operated by Scripps Institution of Oceanography as part of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System research fleet.
Both R/V Roger Revelle and R/V Melville are Global vessels and support multidisciplinary oceanographic research in all of the world?s ocean basins. R/V New Horizon focuses primarily on offshore California but has been used for work throughout the Pacific. The primary working area for R/V Sproul has been the continental shelf and coastal environments off Southern California. In 2012, R/V Roger Revelle is scheduled for 281 days with NSF days accounting for 64% of the total sailing schedule; R/V Melville is scheduled for 281 days with NSF days accounting for 60% of the total sailing schedule; R/V New Horizon is scheduled for 131 days with NSF days accounting for 60% of the total sailing schedule; and R/V Sproul is scheduled for 91 days with NSF days accounting for 35% of the total sailing schedule
Oceanographic instrumentation requested in this proposal includes:
1) Disk Storage Servers $36,215 2) TrackLink 5000 USBL $64,564 3) Air Winches $111,285 4) EIVA Geophysical Software $50,222 5) SeaSoar Block $16,897 6) SeaSoar Hydraulic Unit $59,574 7) 10m2 MOCNESS Components $46,217 TOTAL $384,974
Broader Impacts: The principal impact of the present proposal is under criterion two, providing infrastructure support for scientists to use the vessel and its shared-use instrumentation in support of their NSF-funded oceanographic research projects (which individually undergo separate review by the relevant research program of NSF). The acquisition, maintenance and operation of shared-use instrumentation allows NSF-funded researchers from any US university or lab access to working, calibrated instruments for their research, reducing the cost of that research, and expanding the base of potential researchers.
This grant provided funding to purchase, configure and install disk storage systems for 3 of the 4 research ships operated by Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The 2 larger ships sail globally, with each scientific cruise lasting 3 to 6 weeks. Several gigbytes of data are collected on each cruise. Two redudant strorage servers were installed on each of these ships. There are now used routinely. Data is stored on both, so as to reduce risk of loss from hardware failure. The data is provided to the scientists during the cruise via the shipboard network. A final and complete copy of the data is provided on a USB external disk to the Chief Scientist at the end of every cruise. The final data set is also transferred to the department's shore server and submitted to respective national data archives. A fifth disk server was installed on R/V NEW HORIZON. This ship works primarily from the home port of San Diego, with crusies of from 1 to 4 weeks in duration. As with the larger ships, data is provided to the scientists during the cruise via the shipboard network. A final and complete copy of the data is provided on a USB external disk to the Chief Scientist. The final data set is also transferred to the department's shore server and submitted to respective national data archives. The disk array is raided on this server to protect against loss from individual disk failure. Scientists using the ships have commented on the reliable and efficient design of the servers since their installations. The primary intellectual merit of the proposed work is indirect. It derives from the intellectual merit of the individual research projects on which this instrumentation is used. The competition for NSF awards across the board is very strong. On this basis it is reasonable to conclude that the funded projects supported at sea by this grant are of a high intellectual standard and are at least as meritorious as Ocean Sciences projects overall. In addition to being used for basic research, this instrumentation will be used to broaden the education of undergraduate and graduate students, principally but not exclusively graduate students in the ocean sciences. The great majority of scientific parties that put to sea on Scripps (and other UNOLS) ships contain students in their ranks. They form integral parts of the research teams. By going to sea they obtain firsthand experience of the conduct of seagoing research, they learn the difficulties that surround the gathering of meaningful observations from the real ocean, and they gain valuable preparation for leading their own research projects at sea in their future careers. Shipboard technicians use their available time to demonstrate to students the instrumentation that is on the ship.
